Wednesday, 29 September 2010

P's Parents came to stay for the weekend﻿. I do enjoy them coming to stay. There's loads of chatting and catching up. Loads of laughs too!

Sometimes though, I worry if I am being rude. Like when I wash up or pop off to make the beds. I think it is probably just me. I do have a tendency to worry. Even if I haven't got anything to worry about, then I worry that I have forgotten something. Go figure!

Anyhow. P's mum has helped me a huge amount with my sewing machine.

I've hardly used it over the last few months. You see, everytime I used it, the fabric would pucker, bunch up, and jam up the works. After using the trouble shooting pages in the manual, I found out that tension was the most likely problem. So I followed the instructions, and nothing changed. Next stop was Google. I must have looked at 10-15 different sites about how to fix tension problems. Sill no luck.

Stitch stitch stitch, bunch, pucker, bunch,

FROWN. SWEAR. FROWN.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

So I put it in the storage cupboard under the stairs. (With the cobwebs)

I very nearly put it in the bin. The ONLY thing that prevented that from happening was if there are cobwebs in the cupboard, then it stands to reason that something made them. Something I have no desire to see or be near thank you!

Now though I am happy to say that the machine and I are pals again now.

Would you like to know what the problem was?

I'm embarrassed to tell!

THREADING!!!!!!

Each time I have threaded the machine, I have wound the cotton around the little thing that you only use to keep tension whilst winding a bobbin. Effectively double the tension. No wonder it was all puckery and bunchy!

Before help

After help

I don't think I would have ever guessed that threading would cause such a fuss!

Now the machine works like a dream. I think I need a lot more practice though.

I'm quite pleased with this little pin cushion I made this morning.

I also wanted to quickly show you the progress on Granny stripe MK2.

It's 43" wide by 22" long. I'm very pleased with it, even if I not overly keen on the colours!

Friday, 24 September 2010

P&J have both been home from work and school with man flu. Lots of tissues, and headache pills/ medicine have been taken. Lot of OOOOOOHHHH I don't feel good, and extra hugs.

Actually they have both been quite poorly, poor things! So far I seem to have escaped. Fingers crossed it stays that way! Now they are feeling better I have had some time to take the pics to go with the flower loom instructions.

Firstly tie a little knot in your yarn and wedge in in the little slit on the bottom of your loom.

Keeping the yarn fairly taught, start winding it in a figure 8 between every set of opposite pegs.

All the way around.

The number of times you wind the yarn around, will dictate the puffiness of the petals.

I've gone around 4 times. Just so you get the idea.

Finish off on the same peg you started on, and pull the yarn through the little slit again.

Repeat again on the inner pegs.

How you do the center is up to you! All you are doing is stopping it from coming apart, and to look pretty.

Tuesday, 21 September 2010

This last few days has been pretty much crochet/craft free. Instead I have found myself being mechanical assistant. As I mentioned in a previous post, P's car is undergoing a a huge engine rebuild. I forgot to mention that he's doing it himself, which means so am I.

I don't have too much of an issue with helping, it's just I can't stand having grubby/ grimy hands.

As helper/assistant my jobs are as follows:

1. Go getter of greasy things. (spanners, hammers, etc)

2. Maker of coffee, to all blokes who happen to have their head under the bonnet, or are in the shed.

J and I spent an entire weekend gently pulling off the nasty stickers that were on the car, using the special sticky stuff remover (that smells like fly spray) and finally giving everything a good wax/polish.

She looked lovely when we finished, but I couldn't crochet for 3 days because my hands hurt soooooooooooo much, and they were stuck in a claw like position.

P wanted a project to get his teeth into. He's definitely got that!!

She's so close to running now. We've joined the local Subaru owners club.

I liken it to rav, because everyone has the shared interest, and are really lovely.

We'll soon be able to go to the meets, and drive in a convoy! I truly can't wait!!

This is how she looked when we got her. A little bit tacky IMO.

After all the hard work done by J and I.

Tons better!

I hope to be hooking again soon, and have written out a how I use the flower loom. Just waiting to take the pics to go with it.

Friday, 10 September 2010

I probably haven't picked the best time of year to start a new blanket. It's only a little while till Christmas, and I have plans for at least 2 blankets to make as gifts. Both of those blankets are not going to be my normal choice of colours. They are both going to be granny stripes. One brown, beige, black and white. The other is going to be in several shades of blue.

So maybe this is going to be the last colourful blanket I make this year.

Here's my progress so far.

( please excuse my feet making an appearance!)

To start of with, I used white as the joining round, but it sucked all the peppyness out of the colours.

I'm glad I pulled it all out, and used the pink instead.

I've also made my first few felt balls.

After adding a few beads.

Yay little bracelet!

I think for the rest of this afternoon, I shall fill my kitchen with more felting wool, and the smells of lavender soap!